You can’t be serious!

The rich young ruler says yes to Christ!

The start of the road leading into the Roma village in Prejmer, Romania.

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Philippians 3.4-19

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you. Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.

Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is Paul’s version of Luke 18.18-30. He also had kept the commandments from his youth. He also was successful and respected.

But Paul didn’t go away sad. Not once did Paul look at a command of Christ and say, “That’s impossible. You can’t expect me to do that.” He left it all behind and came to view it as rubbish, a term that should make us understand he not only gave it up but had no desire to return to it either. People throw garbage out; they don’t lament over how much they miss it. (Remember Lot’s wife!)

As soon as Paul makes this comparison (everything else vs. Christ) we must admit the obvious point he is making: it’s impossible to have both. No one can embrace rubbish and Christ at the same time. It had nothing to do with it interfering with Paul’s time or some problem he was having wrestling with the allure of power and prestige. Paul tells us why he gave it up: he gave it up in order to gain Christ.

What did he give up? Paul says everything. Everything that the rich ruler claimed as a qualification Paul called garbage.

To Paul, the only thing that made life worth living was Christ. He regarded everything as rubbish in order that he could gain Christ. He regarded it as rubbish in order to gain a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ! Do we see that? Paul says that obeying Christ is the way of gaining a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ rather than a righteousness that comes from the law! We say we don’t have to do it because we are saved by faith, not works. Paul says we do have to do it because we are saved by faith, not works!

We look at the command of Christ and say, “That can’t be right. Grace is free, faith is the key, and nothing will ever separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, so wealth has nothing to do with it.” Paul looked at it and said, “Of course it separates me from the love of God in Christ Jesus! That’s why I walked away from it!”

Could Paul have kept it all and still had Christ too? Can we?

We want to dismiss Paul as a special case because he was an apostle. We don’t have “the call” so we aren’t expected to live by the same rules. But Paul told the Philippians to imitate him. Clearly he expected them to consider it rubbish as well.

But more than that, he said that those whose minds are set on earthly things live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Some commentators say Paul was talking about the Judaizers: that “the belly” refers to dietary laws and “their shame” is circumcision. Those doomed for destruction are therefore the former people of God who are now the enemies of God.

But Paul is warning the Philippians, not the Judaizers, about leaving things behind. Paul is using his former life as the example of how everyone must leave behind everything. He is certainly not saying that a Gentile Christian must discard Judaism. That’s not leaving everything behind; it’s leaving nothing behind.

Paul defines two groups: those who live according to his example and those who don’t. When he says “many live as enemies of the cross of Christ” he is referring to believers, not unbelievers. What reason would Paul have for warning the Philippians that unbelievers set their minds on earthly things? Of course they do.

Paul says plainly—with tears—that many believers don’t follow his example. They don’t count it as rubbish, they don’t take up the cross, they don’t love God more than the world. And because they live in this shameful way they are destined for destruction.

How can a person who claims to have the righteousness of Christ disregard his demands, shun his lifestyle, and live according to the example of world instead? Is that what we call living by faith? Isn’t faith belief? Can we not believe God’s promises and still claim to have faith? Can we not follow Christ and still claim to be Christians?

We look at the command of Christ to sell it all and say, “Surely he wasn’t serious.” Paul says, “Oh, yes he was. You’re the one that’s not serious.”